Blue Foundation’s New Glenn rocket lifts off on Jan. 16, 2025. Credit score: Blue Foundation
Simply previous 2 a.m. Japanese time on Jan. 16, 2025, a brand new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral House Drive Station in Florida. Via achieving orbit, Blue Foundation’s New Glenn rocket release has marked a milestone for a business area corporate that has giant ambitions.
As an area coverage skilled, I see New Glenn’s good fortune as a large jump ahead for Blue Foundation and a excellent signal for an increasing, formidable business area business.
Blue Foundation’s New Glenn lifted off for its first flight on Jan. 16. Credit score: Bloomberg Tv
Step-by-step
Even if SpaceX is also essentially the most well known business area corporate, Blue Foundation is older by way of two years. Based in 2000 by way of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the corporate envisions a time when tens of millions of persons are residing and dealing in area.
To advance that imaginative and prescient, the corporate is creating its personal line of reusable rockets, which might make stronger get admission to to area.
Blue Foundation’s motto is gradatim ferociter, Latin for “step by step, ferociously.” Bezos has defined that this displays the corporate’s technique to spaceflight.
“If you’re building a flying vehicle, you can’t cut any corners. If you do, it’s going to be an illusion that it’s going to make it faster,” Bezos stated on the Pathfinder Awards in 2016.
With this step by step manner, it took 15 years for Blue Foundation to release its first rocket. New Shepard, which introduced in 2015, is known as after Alan Shepard, the primary American to achieve area.
New Shepard isn’t robust sufficient to achieve orbit. As an alternative, it flies a suborbital trajectory. That implies it flies to the brink of area, experiencing low gravity for only a few mins, sooner than returning to its release web page.
What makes New Shepard distinctive is that it could actually elevate passengers. It did so for the primary time on July 20, 2021, when it carried 3 other people, together with Bezos, to area. Since then, there were 8 crewed flights of New Shepard and 21 uncrewed flights. Particularly, it carried Big name Trek’s William Shatner to area on Oct. 13, 2021.
The New Shepard booster is the predecessor of the New Glenn rocket. Right here, New Shepard touches down throughout an Oct. 23, 2024, flight. Credit score: Blue Foundation
New Shepard has no longer been with out its problems, on the other hand. In 2022, it skilled an engine failure a minute after liftoff. Without a people on board, the release get away gadget activated, permitting the pill to securely go back to Earth. This touchdown additionally intended that had other people been on board, they too would have returned safely.
Increasing the envelope
Whilst Blue Foundation has realized so much from New Shepard’s flights, the corporate wishes a extra robust rocket. Named after John Glenn, the primary American to achieve orbit, New Glenn is designed to be that rocket.
Blue Foundation began creating New Glenn in 2013 however simplest introduced it publicly in 2016. It’s made up of 2 sections referred to as phases. The primary degree has seven engines. As soon as this degree has used up all its gasoline, the objective is for it to detach and go back to a barge at sea, just like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
At that time, the second one degree’s 3 engines illuminate, taking the rocket the remainder of area.
Sadly, on Jan. 16’s maiden release, the primary degree booster used to be destroyed because it tried to go back to the touchdown barge. Earlier than the release, corporate officers had said that they weren’t positive they might recuperate the booster in this flight, however have been going to take a look at anyway.
At over 320 toes tall (98 meters), New Glenn is shorter than an Apollo-era Saturn V (363 toes., or 111 m) however taller than each the gap go back and forth when it used to be absolutely stacked (184 toes., or 64 m) and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (229 toes., or 70 m). It’s going to have double the facility of the gap go back and forth however part the facility of the Saturn V.
New Glenn is smaller than SpaceX’s Starship however higher than the gap go back and forth. Credit score: Jurgenspacerocket/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Along with New Glenn, the corporate is creating Blue Moon, a lunar lander to be used on a long term NASA lunar venture. Additionally it is creating Blue Ring, an in-space servicing platform that may refuel and transfer satellites.
Blue Foundation may be a key a part of Orbital Reef, a deliberate business area station in low Earth orbit. Blue Foundation has likened Orbital Reef to a “mixed-use business park” that can supply area for analysis, building and production in orbit.
Implications for business area
Blue Foundation’s good fortune achieving orbit with New Glenn is a very powerful step for the bigger business area business. Importantly, it is going to create pageant for SpaceX, which some argue has a close to monopoly on release products and services in america.
Pageant for release products and services is a precious factor. It supplies incentive for each corporations to ship the most productive provider on the lowest value. Having a couple of release suppliers may be an indication of a wholesome business marketplace.
Pageant additionally supplies choices for getting access to area in case one corporate should floor its fleet of rockets. This came about a number of instances to SpaceX in 2024 when 3 of its rockets skilled issues throughout release. The location left no possibility for purchasers except for to attend till SpaceX investigated and glued the problems.
Whilst New Glenn will probably be launching uncrewed missions for the following few years, Blue Foundation signed a House Act Settlement with NASA in 2023 to expand extra business tasks, together with a workforce automobile.
A Blue Foundation workforce automobile would supply NASA with extra choices when transporting people to and from low-Earth orbit and even the Moon.
Despite the fact that this release of New Glenn has been 25 years within the making, for Blue Foundation this can be a primary accomplishment – and a vital one if it needs to “ferociously” proceed its objectives for area trip.
Wendy Whitman Cobb is a Professor of Technique and Safety Research at Air College.
Wendy Whitman Cobb is affiliated with the USA Faculty of Complicated Air and House Research. Her perspectives are her personal and don’t essentially replicate the perspectives of the Division of Protection or any of its parts. Point out of business names, business merchandise, or organizations don’t suggest endorsement by way of the U.S. Executive, and the illusion of exterior links does no longer represent DoD endorsement of the related internet sites, or the guidelines, merchandise or products and services therein.
This text used to be in the beginning revealed on The Dialog. It’s republished below a Inventive Commons license.